Synopsis

Three years ago, Karamura Neneko's father died. Since then, she's been living together with her older sister, Nanako. They've been living together happily until recently, when Nanako starts acting strangely. There will be nights that she doesn't sleep at home, and then one day she completely disappears. Not only that, but she quit her job at a company that she had been at for a long time.

Worried about her sister, she remembers a place that her father told her to go to if she was ever in trouble, the Raubritter. Upon arrival, she meets Shinobu and Yokana, cousins that run a detective agency, more-so as a hobby than a career. Since they are both fairly wealthy they never ask for payment. They only help young maidens in need, and since their business is a secret, only people with connections come to them. It turns out that Neneko's father helped them out a lot in the past. The cousins are heart broken to find out that he died, so they are more than willing to help Neneko find her sister.

What has happened to Neneko's sister? Will a special relationship develop between Neneko and the cousins?

Raubritter* is a pretty, but rather bland, tale of an innocent young maiden whose troubles are solved with the help of two rich and sexy detectives.

Arguably, the best feature of this manga is the art. The protagonist is adorable, both by herself and in the way she reacts to the advances of other characters. Everyone is well-proportioned and wears a variety of nice outfits over the course of the story. Each character has their own appealing visual style.

The plot disappoints. Anyone used to detective stories will expect a minimum of drama and tension, but there's no meaningful conflict of any kind. The initial problems are resolved quickly and painlessly, and the manga does itself a disservice by dragging on after the main plot is concluded. There are plenty of emotional and intimate moments, but because the characters are so poorly developed, these scenes are not very touching.

The characterisation is also severely lacking. Everyone is the same, and a lot of time is spent on teasing the protagonist (which everyone does in the exact same cutesy manner). The main characters don't show or develop any remarkable individual traits, and the emergence of additional heroines only dilutes things further.

Overall, Raubritter* is visually appealing but ultimately boring and forgettable read.read more

this is another one of those series I enjoyed perhaps more than it deserved purely because I really like yuri.

firstly, the art style is fantastic, really minimal lines give every page a cute, clean feel. the characters have pretty varied figures, and faces to an extent, by manga standards, and the pages read well. the main heroine is entirely made up of rounded and cute curves that give her something of a classic shoujo heroine appeal with perhaps a slightly fuller figure.

I personally found the characters pretty endearing, though nothing was delved into too deeply. I really enjoyed reading the main trio's interactions, they have a cute little home life set up and it's always nice to see affection between characters. other readers might find it a bit odd that this universe is largely populated by somewhat polyamorous lesbians, but I'm personally happy to suspend disbelief that far because, again, I really like yuri.

I'd class this as a 'plot? what plot?' sort of manga. the story sort of ambles along and is periodically forgotten in order to give side characters more exposure, or for more polyamorous lesbian cuddles/kisses/sex, again something I am totally ok with, but readers hoping for more of a story focus will be very disappointed.read more